Volvo Launches Sustainable Construction Initiative

The Construction Climate Challenge (CCC) — which reaches across the construction industry’s value chain from extraction and production of building materials, to road and general construction, to demolition and recycling — aims to create a dialogue with industry representatives, academics and politicians, as well as providing funding for new research and share existing knowledge and resources to help the industry address climate change, Volvo says.

The first step in the CCC involves evaluating existing research on environmental management, identifying research that still needs to be carried out and then making this information readily available to interested parties in the industry.

To this end, Volvo CE invited researchers from around the world, as well as R&D employees working at the company, to a two-day workshop on climate change in September 2013. The participants determined a total of 112 activities within four research themes, such as sustainable business models, that a working party of Volvo CE employees will now refine and discuss with the other CCC participants.

In the future researchers will be able to apply for funding for projects falling within these themes, while participants will be kept up-to-date with all the latest findings, the company says.

Additionally, the company it taking steps to reduce emissions from its products and facilities. In 2013, Volvo CE joined parent company Volvo Group’s commitment to the WWF Climate Savers program. A year later, it achieved carbon neutrality at its articulated hauler production facility in Braås, Sweden.